title: A novel experimental apparatus to study the impact of white noise and 1/f noise on animal populations.
abstract: This paper reports on the design and construction of a novel apparatus that allows a set of aquatic microcosms to experience complex temporal environmental fluctuations. Replicate microcosms were maintained in 18 water baths with independent environmental controls. We give results from a preliminary experiment designed to look at the effects of varying temperatures with different variance spectra (i.e. white noise or 1/f noise) on single species population dynamics. Matching time series (with identical elements, differently ordered) of environmental temperatures with different Fourier spectra were created for use as input to the apparatus using a novel spectral mimicry method. The apparatus functioned well during the course of the experiment making this an extremely useful research tool. This apparatus now provides ecologists with a means of studying how environmental variability and directional trends in this variability, are filtered and translated by real populations and micro-ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, UK.
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lawton
authors.forename: O L
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: Petchey
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wildman
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D004867:Equipment Design; D008954:Models, Biological; D016805:Paramecium tetraurelia; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013696:Temperature